Date:25/01/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/01/25/stories/2007012514090400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

PF staff go on snap strike

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Staff of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) offices here went on a snap strike on Wednesday alleging harassment by higher authorities.

Employees at the Provident Commissioner's office on Raja Ram Mohun Roy Road and EPF offices in Peenya, Bommasandra and K.R. Puram struck work and staged demonstrations under the aegis of EPF Staff Union, demanding action against some officials. Even accounts officers and enforcement officers participated in the strike, the union leaders said.

The leaders told The Hindu that higher officials were harassing the employees by burdening them with additional work. Unable to bear the harassment, some employees committed suicide, they alleged

A section supervisor, Shivashankar Shastri (54), who was allegedly harassed by a senior official on Tuesday afternoon, died of heart attack in the night, the employees complained. It was Shastri's death that led to the snap strike.

The union leaders said that clerks who were supposed to handle 2,200 accounts had been assigned over 10,000 accounts each.